Boohoo - Response16 Jul 2020 09:17
As a board, we are committed to doing everything in our power to rebuild the reputation of the textile manufacturing industry in Leicester. We want to ensure that the actions of a few do not continue to undermine the excellent work of many suppliers in the area, who succeed in providing good jobs and good working conditions. To support this, we are:
· launching an immediate independent review of our UK supply chain, led by Alison Levitt QC
· making an initial commitment to invest an incremental £10 million to eradicate supply chain malpractice
· accelerating our independent third party supply chain review with ethical audit and compliance specialists, Verisio and Bureau Veritas
We take extremely seriously all allegations of malpractice, poor working conditions, and underpayment of workers. The Group will not tolerate any incidence of non-compliance with its Code of Conduct or any mistreatment of workers, and will not hesitate to terminate relationships with any supplier who does not comply.
We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Home Secretary and the local authority on any future investigations to help eliminate any instances of labour malpractice in Leicester.
Update on investigation into media commentary
As soon as the Group was made aware of the allegations of mistreatment of garment workers by our third party suppliers, as detailed in the 6 July announcement, an immediate investigation was launched.
Our findings show some inaccuracies with last Sunday's media report. The garments featured were not actually manufactured in Leicester, but in Morocco. Post production, the garments were shipped back to the UK by the supplier to be repackaged into compliant boxes for delivery to the Group's international distribution centre in Burnley. This was the process that was filmed at a premises formerly operated by Jaswal Fashions Limited.
Jaswal Fashions Limited, contrary to the media report, is not and has never been a supplier for the Group, and does not operate in the unit stated. Investigations over the last 72 hours have highlighted that the order from Nasty Gal was placed with Revolution Clothing Co Limited, who then instructed Morefray Limited to manufacture in Morocco and repackage the garments on their behalf in Leicester.
Our investigation to date has not found evidence of suppliers paying workers £3.50 per hour. However we have found other evidence of non-compliance with our Code of Conduct and the Group has taken the decision to immediately terminate its relationship with both suppliers.
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